Review #1,038: 'X-Men: Apocalypse' (2016)

Following Matthew Vaughn's enjoyable franchise reboot X-Men: First Class (2011) and Bryan Singer's mind-bending follow-up Days of Future Past (2014), the latest entry into the ever-expanding world of the X-Men that began back in 2000 promised - according to writer Simon Kinberg - a scale and scope on such a level never before seen in a superhero movie. While the latest villain to face Professor X and his crew certainly ups the ante by offering the threat of global extinction, X-Men: Apocalypse suffers mainly because we have seen the likes of this before, after all Ultron threatened the same thing just last year in Marvel's Avengers sequel, and Roland Emmerich and Michael Bay have been doing this since the mid-1990's.

Apocalypse just doesn't offer the same sort of unique strangeness that assisted Days of Future Past in being the best entry since X2 in 2003, nor the impressive grip it kept on its large ensemble of super-beings and superstars in First Class. When it all boils down, Apocalypse is simply a tale of good vs. bad, introducing a hefty influx of new characters and old (with many of the latter re-cast with up-and-comers) in the process. The threat facing the wheelchair-bound telepath Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and his School for Gifted Youngsters this time is the first and most powerful mutant of them all, En Sabar Nuh aka Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac). When we first meet him, Nuh is in Ancient Egypt where he is worshipped as a god. Fearing his power, his worshippers betray him, leaving him entombed within a collapsed pyramid and killing his Four Horsemen.

In 1983, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence), the shape-shifting mutant, is in East Berlin rescuing teleporter Kurt Wagner aka Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee) from a human-run underground fight club and its winged champion Angel (Ben Hardy). Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is hiding out in Poland with his wife and child following his attempt to assassinate the President of the USA ten years previous. Charles is still running his school, which has added some interesting new recruits in fellow telepath Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) and Scott Summers aka Cyclops (Tye Sheridan). When Apocalypse re-awakens and decides that humanity has lost its way, he sets about recruiting his four new Horsemen, including Magneto, to help him destroy the world and rebuild it with him as its leader.

Anyone who loved Quicksilver's scene-stealing appearance in Days of Future Past will no doubt appreciate Evan Peters' extended role here, as he is again central to an impressive set-piece that is equally playful, inventive and exciting. For a movie with such a grim outlook at stake, it ironically works best when going about its business with a sense of humour. In the dramatic moments, its fails to offer any real impact, almost completely ignoring any religious undertones that would have made the film infinitely more interesting, and covering familiar ground in terms of Charles and Erik's somewhat rocky friendship. Although Isaac gives it his all, it is the young actors that are the standouts. Turner, Sheridan and Smit-McPhee manage to both channel the actors who came before them and making the characters their own. Hopefully then, the franchise is in safe hands moving forward (there are no signs of it stopping), but for now, Apocalypse is very much a case of same-old, same-old, and not much more than a relatively entertaining way to kill 2 and a half hours.


Directed by: Bryan Singer
Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Oscar Isaac, Rose Byrne, Evan Peters, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Kodi Smit-McPhee
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #899: 'Slow West' (2015)

The filmmaker's obsession with the Old West never seem to cease, whether it be the rough-and-tumble tales of black vs. white of the 50's, the sweat-drenched stand-off's of the European low-budget efforts of the 60's and 70's, or the revisionist approaches that enjoyed a re-emergence in the mid-2000's, the harsh plains of America's darkest period seem to fascinate every new generation, all of which have a different take on a period that has taken on a mythic quality. Following a couple of successful shorts working with Michael Fassbender, Man on a Motorcycle (2009) and Pitch Black Heist (2011), director John Maclean from The Beta Band makes his feature-length debut with Slow West, a suitably slow-burning and simple tale of lost love, set to the backdrop of violence and a country in unrest.

Scot Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is an opportunistic young dreamer who arrives in America in the hope of claiming his lost love. We first meet him at night aiming his gun at the stars, pondering the possibilities of this new land. He then witnesses the execution of Native American's for sport by a gruff Union leader, who is then killed by a skilled bounty hunter named Silas Selleck (Fassbender). Silas agrees to take Jay under his wing, and as their story develops, we soon learn that they are hunting for the same thing for very different reasons. Through flashbacks, we learn that back in Scotland, Jay fell in love with a beautiful girl below his social class, Rose (Caren Pistorius), who could only return platonic love. Along with her father (Rory McCann), Rose fled her homeland after a bounty is placed on their head.

Slow West depicts an America that is simultaneously familiar yet unfamiliar. It is the dusty west of the revisionist westerns of recent years where violence comes as second-nature to its inhabitants, and the mountains and woods are filmed with the same sense of wonder and impending danger that has become synonymous with the genre. Yet, the landscape is also alive with colour and natural beauty, as if the flowers were blooming with as much fruitless optimism as Jay's quest to rescue his love, which is frequently placed in peril by the likes of Swedish bandits or the ever-looming Payne (Ben Mendelsohn), a fellow bounty-hunter in a ludicrous fur coat who clearly shares a history with Silas. The decision to film in New Zealand adds to the sense of displacement, as if Jay imagined the world he read about in stories only to discover that it's only half-true.

Although the film is as slow-moving as the title may suggest, the relatively short running time means that scenes are brisk and the narrative is never boring. It often feels surreal, like Jodorowsky on a mild day, producing some moments of oddball comedy juxtaposed with the spattering of bloodshed. It's also ludicrous at times - though not always in a bad way - and Maclean frequently explores the themes of man at their most primitive done many times before. But the climax is the work of a director with promise, as the bullets fly and walls become smeared in blood, it's a shoot-out that manages to retain control of the drama happening in between, as well as delivering a truly exciting set-piece. Fassbender says little but has the presence of an old soul, and Smit-McPhee, similar to his role in John Hillcoat's The Road (2009), is effective as the sad-eyed child caught up in a world he doesn't fully understand. Perpetually odd and surprising, Slow West is the melancholic work of a director to keep an eye on.


Directed by: John Maclean
Starring: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Michael Fassbender, Caren Pistorius, Ben Mendelsohn, Rory McCann
Country: UK/New Zealand

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #807: 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' (2014)

Very few expected 2011's reboot of a franchise - so clinically killed off by Tim Burton and his failure to grasp the idea of narrative sense - to be any good at all. Yet Rupert Wyatt's Rise of the Planet of the Apes was not only excellent as a thrilling action movie, but also carefully laid-out and thoughtful in it's scientific approach to the disease that ultimately led to apes conquering Earth and replacing humans as the planet's alpha species. Such a surprising success naturally leads to sequels, and when a director so acclaimed in his delivery of the first instalment fails to re-sign on, disaster is expected. But the apes have done it again, and not only does Dawn stay faithful to it's predecessor's code of story over cheap thrills, but it surpasses it in quality, gradually evolving into a serious study of war.

Ten years after the events of the first film, most of humanity has been wiped out by ALZ-113 virus. The escaped apes from the first movie, namely chimpanzee Caesar (Andy Serkis), bonobo Koba (Toby Kebbell, replacing Christopher Gordon), and orangutan Maurice (Karin Konoval), are living peacefully in the woods believing the human race to be extinct. They communicate using sign language, though a few of them have learnt some words, and exist peacefully as a multi-ethical community. Caesar has two sons by Cornelia (Judy Greer) - Blue Eyes (Nick Thurston) and a newborn - and is the alpha with the facially and emotionally scarred Koba as his second-in-command.

Unbeknownst to the apes, a small group of humans still dwell in the city, running out of the power supply that is keeping them alive. Led by Dreyfus (Gary Oldman) and Malcolm (Jason Clarke), the pack is living together in a huge building amongst the decaying city outside. A small expedition into the woods leads to trigger-happy member Carver (Oz's Kirk Acevedo) shooting an ape in the head in fear. Caesar and his extended army confront them, but Caesar's sympathetic view of humans leads to him allowing them to return to the city, demanding they leave in human speech. Malcolm is astonished at the ape's intelligence and charisma, and returns with his girlfriend (Keri Russell) and son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) to treat with him.

The cinematography and set design are astonishing, The movie doesn't just give us a plastic apocalyptic world full of CGI-laden establishing shots, but a world that feels real and lived-in. And interacting in this world are some of the greatest special effects in the history of cinema. WETA have outdone themselves here, not only managing to blend motion-capture in an exterior environment seamlessly, but also allowing the actors behind the effects to act. A lot has been written about Serkis's portrayal of Caesar, and it is the actor's best performance to date, but Kebbell too manages to bring emotion and devastation to Koba's face, bringing an astonishing complexity to what could have been a stock antagonist. When the two interact, it feels real. You tend not to gasp at the effects because it simply feels like there aren't any.

When the inevitable smack-down ensues, it's after some spellbinding drama. There's no cut-and-dry good and bad guys, just the inevitable roll towards blood-shed. There's blame on both sides in equal measure, and it comments heavily on both species' natural inclination to go to war. They live peacefully apart, but once they discover each other things start to fall apart out of desire, greed and most of all, fear. The action is utterly thrilling, and although it offers such treats as the sight of an ape firing two machine gun's whilst riding a horse, it's mainly because we are so engrossed in the character's stories. Serkis and Kebbell deserve Oscar recognition, but probably won't get it. Tim Burton's ghastly 2001 effort has been near-enough wiped from memory, and this new franchise will surely go from strength to strength.


Directed by: Matt Reeves
Starring: Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Toby Kebbell, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, Kodi Smit-McPhee
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #243: 'Let Me In' (2010)

12 year-old Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) lives alone with his divorced mother. He is bullied at school and leads a generally lonely existence, until a man and what looks like a little girl moves in to the flat next door. The man (Richard Jenkins) kidnaps a young man, hangs him up by his feet and slits his throat, catching the blood. He slips on the ice, causing him to drop the blood which spills onto the floor. Later, we see the young girl Abby (Chloe Grace Moretz) shouting at him for doing this. Abby and Owen start a strange friendship, and it soon becomes clear that Abby is a vampire. Owen shows Abby what it is like to be human, many things she has forgotten, and Abby teaches Owen that he must stand up to his tormentors.

Matt Reeves' second adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist's Swedish novel Let The Right One In faced a backlash from fans of Tomas Alfredson's brilliant original when it was announced. Reeves was adamant, however, that this was not a re-make of Alfredson's film, but a fresh adaptation of the book, relocating the action from Stockholm to New Mexico. This film would keep the same focus on the central friendship between Owen and Abby (originally Oskar and Eli), and this would be a film in its own right.

I'll try not to mention Alfredson's 2008 version too much as this is a novel adaptation, but it is hard to ignore it given that it is one of my all-time favourite films, and, in my opinion, the greatest vampire film of all time (including Muranu's Nosferatu (1922) and Dreyer's Vampyr (1932)). Let Me In introduces the character of the Policeman (Elias Koteas), who does not appear in the original (I'm not sure if he is in the novel), and he seems to be there to play the moral centre of the film. This choice I could have lived without, as it is almost like they were worried that the whole film may seem amoral to an American audience. Well, it is about good and evil after all, and what defines it, so the addition seems wholly unnecessary.

Thinking about it, the more I write about this film the less I'm liking it. I know I said I wouldn't mention the original too much, but even though Reeves said this was a fresh adaptation, there are a lot of shots and scenes that are exactly the same to Alfredson's original. Only here, they are devoid of any atmosphere or heart. The original's perfect pace, and creeping atmosphere really got to the heart of Oskar. It emphasised that he was a troubled child with a worrying obsession with crime, knifes and voyeurism. Let Me In tones this down, making him a much more innocent character. Everything that was dark and different that the first film explored - the revelation that Eli/Abby is a castrated boy; the hinting that Eli/Abby's protector is a paedophile - are wholly ignored. It's like Reeves and the producers felt the Western audiences would be stupid to grasp these dark themes.

Also, the extremely poor CGI deserves a special mention. While it was used only when necessary in Alfredson's version, here it is used a number of times, especially when Abby is in her vampire mould, attacking a person or climbing up a tree before the hunt. It does nothing except take away the 'reality' of it all. This is a story that needs to be grounded in a believable setting, in order to emphasise the social themes, and to make the coming-of-age story more real and easier to relate to. But this is seriously damaged, and the film feels ever more like a fantasy horror, rather than a drama, which at the story's heart, it ultimately is.

The good, there is very little of to be honest. The acting, especially by McPhee and the always-impressive Moretz, is very good, although it is a shame they weren't given the whole of their characters to explore. But everything the original made subtle, atmospheric and scary, this Americanised version makes obvious, loud and jumpy. I don't know when directors will realise that loud noises aren't scary. Overall, very disappointing, but wholly expected. This is not a re-imagining, but a re-make. And a very average one at that.


Directed by: Matt Reeves
Starring: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloë Grace Moretz, Richard Jenkins, Elias Koteas
Country: UK/USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie